Yeah, the face import bug made me pretty mad too but I had heard about it before I had the game so I had time to prepare myself. I managed to recreate my femshep pretty well but I'll play it again with my actual shep when a patch comes out nontheless.

A bug that made me just as mad actually was the Kasumi one. I played all the DLC from ME2 and ME1 and Kasumi is one of my all time favorite Mass Effect characters, she felt like an old friend like Liara, Garrus and Tali for some reason.

That mission in ME3 with her is completely broken, it doesn't work. And it's not likely to get an offical patch (I'm hoping a fan will make one). I was so looking foreward to talking to her and asking how she was doing with Keiji's graybox and everything. So yes, I was really dissapointed.

But otherwise, I loved it. My collector's edition sits proudly on my nightstand. Now to prepare for an awesome Mass Effect-athon, creating a new Shepard and play trough all three games in a row.

Also, I romanced Garrus loyally trough ME2 and 3 and that scene with the shooting on top of the Presidium is even better with the romance dialogue.

My personal belief as to why Padok Wiks, the salarian that replaces Mordin if he dies, is so interesting is because Mordin is SO hard to keep alive in ME2 so they knew that alot of people would have him dead and created a really interesting character to replace him. I actually feel a bit bad for people ho did not see him because so of his lines are frickin hilarious.

If you guys could add just a bit more detail, so those of us that don't know exactly what part of the game you're talking about could still get the jist of what you're talking about, that'd be great. I'm totally using your podcast to vicariously find out what happens, and obviously I don't care about spoilers.

On the topic of how Javik effects the later half of the game if you have it.A lot of the conversations you have with Liara on Thessia change if you have unlocked him. She usually specifies her statements by saying "If only I could talk to a Prothean SCIENTIST".Also I have EDI with me and her on that mission, and she was constantly pointing out that THOSE STATUS AND CARVINGS LOOK JUST LIKE PROTHEANS, and Liara is reacting with a kind of unconvincing self denial. Like she says stuff like "Well yes, but there could be plenty of other reasons for the similarity". Sadly I was forced to bring her on this mission and not knowing ahead of time I brought EDI as my second. If I knew what I was walking into I would have brought Javik, cause I would LOVE to see what that changes things to.

My squad was always EDI and Javik from the earliest point I could, and they not only have a lot of unique conversations with each other, but they have ALOT of custom reactionary dialog. Plus many of the other people you run into in conversations like Wrex for example say stuff like "What the heck is he?" and you just deadpan respond back "a living protean..." and Wrex is like "Hu, you really love collecting squads of freaks don't ya?".

While the ending is a bit of a mess, the journey there is pretty much what makes this game great.

That mission in ME3 with her is completely broken, it doesn't work. And it's not likely to get an offical patch (I'm hoping a fan will make one). I was so looking foreward to talking to her and asking how she was doing with Keiji's graybox and everything. So yes, I was really dissapointed.

Indeed. His isn't the only name that gets added. I stared at that wall a lot.

Yeah, thought that the list would just be members of the alliance and did not notice that the wall updates until Thane's name appeared at the bottom of the list during my stroll around the Normandy. Didn't realize then that they put up names alphabetically.

Heh I think I might of been one of the few who actually started taking Ashley on missions all the time (well I did at the last half of the game) her ammo power on hardcore is a life saver against all those barrier /shield enemies. teamed up with Liara's stasis

That mission in ME3 with her is completely broken, it doesn't work. And it's not likely to get an offical patch (I'm hoping a fan will make one). I was so looking foreward to talking to her and asking how she was doing with Keiji's graybox and everything. So yes, I was really dissapointed.

Thanks for doing this podcast. It has made me appreciate the great experiences I had with ME3 before being let down by the endings.

*Caution, this post contains SPOILERS*

Just a few questions and comments for the next podcast. I'm kind of glad I didn't romance Thane because I was BAWLING when he died and a postmortem love letter would have killed me. Susan, since you did romance Thane, did you take the renegade action after the fight with Kai Leng? And if so, how awesome and cathartic was it? Also, no one talked about the Grissom Academy mission. Did any of you play through that one? What did you think of the Atlas? About the ending, do you think the ending affects the replay value of the series? Is there any hope for DLC? I really liked this game up to the last 5 minutes and maybe I am grasping at straws, but this can't be the end, can it? Thanks.

Considering you said you never take Javik, I don't think you're really qualified to say "you didnt miss much". He adds to the conversation like any character would, and often gives much insight. I just finished a mission on the Asari homeworld, and that was a pretty shining moment for him, if you had him in your party.

And btw, Thane doesn't have to die to Kai. If you do not visit him in the hospital and you made sure Kirrahe is still alive, When Kai shows up, Kirrahe takes the sword to the face, and not Thane. Alternatively if they had already both died, the assassination is successful.

Listening to this as I type this, but one thing bothers me...you guys should bring different characters other than just the same ones. For example, you complain about what the interactions on Thessia are like if you already have Javik in your squad, but I can tell you didn't actually bring him on that mission. The interaction with him and the Prothean VI was really good.

Although I suppose you couldn't have known that going in...

Edit: I totally agree that Javik's a dickhead though and I was disappointed overall in him. And sorry Susan, but James isn't a romance option.

penthesilea180:Thanks for doing this podcast. It has made me appreciate the great experiences I had with ME3 before being let down by the endings.

*Caution, this post contains SPOILERS*

Just a few questions and comments for the next podcast. I'm kind of glad I didn't romance Thane because I was BAWLING when he died and a postmortem love letter would have killed me. Susan, since you did romance Thane, did you take the renegade action after the fight with Kai Leng? And if so, how awesome and cathartic was it? Also, no one talked about the Grissom Academy mission. Did any of you play through that one? What did you think of the Atlas? About the ending, do you think the ending affects the replay value of the series? Is there any hope for DLC? I really liked this game up to the last 5 minutes and maybe I am grasping at straws, but this can't be the end, can it? Thanks.

On the subject of kai leng - killing him is awesome and cathartic for any character really. I know that leng is supposed to be this super cool and awesome ninja mofo, but all he really is a pathetic annoying retard (more annoying than ashley even - though i thought that would be impossible) who could barely stand against a terminally ill drell, even with all those reaper implants. Makes you think that if he is cerberus' best operative, then shepard has nothing to worry about.

If you want to avoid the import bug in the future, opt to customize Shep in ME2 but don't change a thing and then just save it, I remember picking that option for my Para-Shep by mistake and not changing anything and there was no issue with the import in ME3.

Anyway, EDI has annoyed the hell out of me ever since "meeting" her in ME2 and I facepalmed HARD when she got her own little avatar. I really do not like the ship a.i trying to be more human crap, it is boring.

Also, not a fan of James either, feel like the tough male marine thing has been done to death already and no character dynamic added would ever be as interesting as making that character female. Which is why FemShep is more awesome than MaleShep :)

Finally: WHY NO KROGAN SQUADMATE? I think that upset me more than anything else.

That mission in ME3 with her is completely broken, it doesn't work. And it's not likely to get an offical patch (I'm hoping a fan will make one). I was so looking foreward to talking to her and asking how she was doing with Keiji's graybox and everything. So yes, I was really dissapointed.

Odd. It worked just fine for me.

Lucky you. I looked it up and it seems a lot of people have trouble with it. Apparantly it has something to do with the order you do it in.

Eri:Considering you said you never take Javik, I don't think you're really qualified to say "you didnt miss much". He adds to the conversation like any character would, and often gives much insight. I just finished a mission on the Asari homeworld, and that was a pretty shining moment for him, if you had him in your party.

And btw, Thane doesn't have to die to Kai. If you do not visit him in the hospital and you made sure Kirrahe is still alive, When Kai shows up, Kirrahe takes the sword to the face, and not Thane. Alternatively if they had already both died, the assassination is successful.

Wait, if you don't visit Thane in the hospital, Kirrahe intervenes? I thought they wanted to reward you for doing those character meet-ups, like what happens with Miranda if you do (versus if you don't) meet her.

I had played the first 2 ME games on my Xbox, but then had to switch to PC for various reasons. So I decided I would do things a bit differently; I always played femshep, but this time in ME1, I would romance and save Kaiden for once (I really preferred Ashely as a character, at least she had an arc), despite the fact I didn't like him that much. So I have to say, the thing about ME3 that surprised me a lot was that it actually made me start to like him, go figure.

Everything with Garrus and Tali was gold. Really gave me a feeling that we had been in this together since day one. Really loved the conversation where Tali and Garrus argue over the toughest mission, or who's going to score the most kills.

Ashley was a real pain in the ass, should have gunned her down when she backed Udina. That's what I thought the renegade option was.

Personally I thought Cortez fell kind of flat. But maybe I didn't talk to him enough. I didn't get that bar scene.

Oh and Wrex rocked. I intended to do whatever it took to win. But no way could I betray Wrex. I hear if you do, he finds out and comes for you.

Look forward to your takes on the ending. Lot of discussion going on concerning it, and some interesting interpretation.

DaVash:Heh I think I might of been one of the few who actually started taking Ashley on missions all the time (well I did at the last half of the game) her ammo power on hardcore is a life saver against all those barrier /shield enemies. teamed up with Liara's stasis

That mission in ME3 with her is completely broken, it doesn't work. And it's not likely to get an offical patch (I'm hoping a fan will make one). I was so looking foreward to talking to her and asking how she was doing with Keiji's graybox and everything. So yes, I was really dissapointed.

Odd. It worked just fine for me.

Yeah it worked for me as well.

it was broken for me as well, and then it just disappeared i think. just like another quest for someone standing in the embassies looking for his son.

I think what they did with the face import in ME2 is that they just copied the polygons of your character instead of the facecode, because when I tried to find the imported haircode that I used in ME2 in ME2's face creator, it just wasn't there. So a haircut that you can use in-game wasn't available in the character creator. But the character import in ME3 just copies the facecode from ME2, meaning that the bugged facecode you recieved as a result of polygon copying in ME2 results in a bugged import in ME3.That's my theory anyway.

it was broken for me as well, and then it just disappeared i think. just like another quest for someone standing in the embassies looking for his son.

I know the mission you're talking about. It worked for me (after searching every place in citadel I finally found out what to do lol) The info about his son can be found on the spectre info terminal that lets you approve things.

I feel weird listening to this and being a PS3 player. Haha. I used Garrus all the time in ME2 because he was just....good in that game. I'd rotate between Samara and Jack for the third character. But for ME3, I all but dropped him in favour of Ashley. I play Paragon FemShep, and their dynamic just seems...to work for me. The drunk Ashley scene was HILARIOUS because of it. I take Javik everywhere with me, too, because Liara is made of paper and I like having a biotic on my squad. The AI is really dumb with her, especially in the beginning, so she dies way too easily, I think.

I happen to love the fact that EDI has a body and I can take her with me. I kicked myself not taking her with Tali on the geth missions. Her perspective would probably have been really interesting. And...I like that they gave her a more physical, tangible way to interact with Joker. Really think he deserves that.

I played with Ashley and Garrus as often as I could. The thing is, Ashley always wore a fašade of hardend solider, but if you get close to her and talks about her family, she always breaks down, and says she wouldn't be able to do this without you. She has way more dimensions than she seems.